DRAFT

There is nothing better than the sight of a rare bird. Whether sitting in your backyard when an errant traveller stops by, or trekking to an exotic location, every encounter is a gift. Through a lifetime of experiences, Gene Walz shares the joy of the birding life in Happiness is a Rare Bird.With quirky terms such as vagabonds, endemics, fall-out, jinx birds, and lifers, the unique birding community brings together kindred spirits to marvel at the incredible diversity of their avian subjects.From common house sparrows to the spectacular Cock of... + Read More

It's 1922 and business is booming for Saul and Lou Sugarman-- ­thanks to prohibition. But business gets personal when the Sugarmans' brother-in-law ends up dead. Looking for answers, private detective Sam Klein is called in to investigate. What appears to be nothing more than a deal-gone-bad quickly spirals out of control to threaten Sam's own family. How can Sam prevent his loved ones from becoming enmeshed in a bootlegger turf war that's bigger than even he can imagine?

Captain Mueller is dead. Hanged, apparently by his own hand. But ex-police officer and war hero Sergeant August Neumann doesn't think it's quite so simple. How could it be with blackshirts, legionnaires, and communist sympathisers vying for control of the camp? Now Sergeant Neumann must navigate these treacherous cliques to find the truth while under the watchful eyes of his Canadian captors.Wayne Arthurson manages to hook you on the first page of this masterful mystery. The Traitors of Camp 133 is historical fiction at its best, a wonderful ac... + Read More

Duty, desire, love, and purpose. Who we want to be and whom we want in our lives. As Susan prepares for the birth of her first child, she contemplates her role as a mother, wife, and partner on the family farm through the lives of the women closest to her. In a world of wanting and waiting, is fulfillment always beyond reach?Praise for The Waiting PlaceLust and despair rival hard work and family in Sharron Arksey's exploration of women in a modern rural landscape, simultaneously shattering old-fashioned ideas of farm life and detailing the very... + Read More

Driving across the North American Heartland, surrounded by prairie, it is almost impossible to imagine that once this was once a huge inland sea. The Western Interior Seaway, which split the entire continent of North America in half, once teemed with predatory creatures - fanged fish and turtles the size of small cars; prowling sharks and giant squid; hungry plesiosaurs and immense crocodiles. At the top of this prehistoric food chain, stretching up to nearly 15 metres (50 feet) and weighing a hefty 50,000 kilograms (50 tonnes), ruled the might... + Read More

Wayne Tefs is the Dead Man on a Bike in his posthumous follow-up memoir to Roller Coaster: A Cancer Journey. Diagnosed with a rare cancer in 1994, Tefs spent the next 20 years raising a family, writing acclaimed works of fictions, battling cancer, and cycling. Always cycling. Brutally visceral in his approach, Tefs explains: "This book is about the wound, about how cancer sticks a knife in your side and says, There, do what you can. What are the options? You can fall over dead; whinge out your days; leave the knife to fester; yank it out and s... + Read More

The moon migrates, seasons cycle, and the body ebbs and flows. Drawing together the skeins of existence and his family's nearness, Dennis Cooley's departures joyously intermingles poetry and science. In the end, faced with his own mortality, Cooley fights back with great big clods of earthy humour and humility.With departures Dennis Cooley coils and uncoils the language of our bodies, the subtle string of cells and letters which bind us to each other and to language. The writing of grief is never simple, never clear--it is a tangled ball of rib... + Read More

Carla Funk, in her fifth book of poetry, illuminates the small and marvelous marginalia of earth, like the glistening trail of a snail en route, and looks prophetically to the not-so-distant future where cities burn and the body falls to ruin. A meditation on endings, intermingling wonder and praise with question and elegy, Gloryland offers poems for an apocalyptic age.Better than anyone, Carla Funk finds words for the rural, the north, the troubled family, and for "that feeling when the world goes wrong and true." Reading this book makes me sh... + Read More

In Never Mind, Katherine Lawrence constructs a centuries-old immigrant tale that is fiercely feminist, surprisingly modern, and darkly funny. The voice in these exquisite poems is a 19th century woman who straddles both old and new worlds as she navigates her own interior landscape. Observations are wry, intimate, and shot with musicality. This muscular collection pays tribute to the long poem while extending the tradition with fragments from letters, diary entries, sketches, dialogue, and an ongoing communion with the natural world. "Who knock... + Read More

Poor Wally. It's the mid-1990s, and middle-aged history professor Wally Baxter is recently divorced and looking for love. No easy task in this age of hyper-political correctness. Wally's mind boggles at the complicated set of romantic rules that have sprung up in the last 20 years, but he manages to stumble his way into a budding romance with the young widow Carolyn.Seeking respite from his ever-mutable ex-wife, Wally decides to take his brand new paramour on a short-term sabbatical to the University of Tasmania. Only time will tell if hapless ... + Read More

Fame can be fickle. Nobody knows that better than overnight sensation Gabriel Pegg . . . you know, Port-o-Potty Guy . . . from Erratic Automatic. Remember him? He went from the penthouse to the outhouse, and now Gabriel is persona non grata in the entertainment biz. Broke, behind on his child support payments, and a wanted man, Gabriel heads to the only place he has left: Greatness, Manitoba, population...I don't know, but there's one traffic light. Gabriel believes his destiny as a serious auteur awaits him, once he can rid himself of those pe... + Read More

questions I asked my mother is a seminal work of both Canadian and Mennonite literature.Included in this new edition, poet and scholar Tanis MacDonald reflects on the the impact of Di Brandt's poetry undercuts centuries of patriarchal culture. Powerful and lyrical, filled with humour and intelligence, [Brandt's] language enfolds desire and hate, birth and death, mother and child."You can feel the warmth of the poets breath, sometimes gasping, sometimes singing, always affirming life itself. Read these poems. They will take your breath away."--M... + Read More

Ted Callan, war herald of the Nine Worlds, must build a cage from Surtur's bones, unearth the Bright Sword, and vanquish the fire giant once and for all. But there?s a catch. Ted needs Surtur's bones to build the cage, to get the sword, to kill the giant. And Surtur is very attached to his bones. Enlisting Manitoba's giants, dwarves, and elves to watch over Winnipeg, Ted takes advantage of a lull in Surtur's fires to hitch a ride back to Edmonton for his best friend?s wedding and search for answers. While he's there he tries to mend fences wit... + Read More

Anxiety is the watchword at most school reunions, with side-eye comparisons of greying hair and extra pounds around the belly. Not our Randy Craig. She's more concerned with resolving a 20 year old CanLit scandal and catching a ruthless killer. While helping her best friend Denise organize their 20 year reunion at the University of Alberta, Randy's tumultuous past as a graduate student comes rushing into the present as she faces off against old ghosts and imminent death. Another Margaret is both Janice MacDonald's first and sixth installment ... + Read More

Showcasing a selection of stories from Armin Wiebe's 30 year writing career, Armin's Shorts features tales from the familiarly fictitious Mennonite community of Gutenthal, re-imagined origin stories from the Tli?cho? of the subarctic, and flights of pure fantasy set in modern day Winnipeg. Funny enough to make your "grandmother sit up in her black trough coffin and laugh," and so gut wrenching you'll feel "that clunk in the heart, and that wrunsch in the stomach," master story teller, Armin Wiebe, presents a veritable smorgasbord of short stori... + Read More

Showcasing a selection of stories from Armin Wiebe's 30 year writing career, Armin's Shorts features tales from the familiarly fictitious Mennonite community of Gutenthal, re-imagined origin stories from the Tli?cho? of the subarctic, and flights of pure fantasy set in modern day Winnipeg.Funny enough to make your "grandmother sit up in her black trough coffin and laugh," and so gut wrenching you'll feel "that clunk in the heart, and that wrunsch in the stomach," master story teller, Armin Wiebe, presents a veritable smorgasbord of short storie... + Read More

Following the coast on their summer vacation, the Henrys stop at the beach to break up the monotony of their road trip. Matty and Nat build castles in the sand as Anne and David take turns minding the children. A moment of distraction, a blink of the eye, and the life they know is swept away forever.Like shipwrecks lost at sea, each member of the family sinks under the weight of their shared tragedy. All seems lost but life is long. There are many ways to heal a wound, there are many ways to form a family, and as the Henrys discover, there are ... + Read More

War herald of the Nine Worlds, Ted Callan, must build a cage from Surtur's bones, unearth the Bright Sword, and vanquish the fire giant once and for all. But there's a snag in his master plan to slay the monster and save the world.Ted has no idea how to do it.So he hits the road and reunites the band. Hitchhiking back to Edmonton for his best friend's wedding, Ted fends off fanatical Surtur worshippers, makes a tentative peace with trickster Loki and prophetess Tilda, and learns he has three days left to live.It's the end of the world as he kno... + Read More

Following the coast on their summer vacation, the Henrys stop at the beach to break up the monotony of their road trip. Matty and Nat build castles in the sand as Anne and David take turns minding the children. A moment of distraction, a blink of the eye, and the life they know is swept away forever. Like shipwrecks lost at sea, each member of the family sinks under the weight of their shared tragedy. All seems lost but life is long. There are many ways to heal a wound, there are many ways to form a family, and as the Henrys discover, there are... + Read More

Anxiety is the watchword at most school reunions, with side-eye comparisons of greying hair and extra pounds around the belly. Not our Randy Craig. She's more concerned with resolving a 20 year old CanLit scandal and catching a ruthless killer. While helping her best friend Denise organize their 20 year reunion at the University of Alberta, Randy's tumultuous past as a graduate student comes rushing into the present as she faces off against old ghosts and imminent death. Another Margaret is both Janice MacDonald's first and sixth installment i... + Read More

The ordinary becomes the extraordinary in K. I. Press's latest collection of poems, Exquisite Monsters. Filled with gods, monsters, saints and small children, Press draws together myth, magic and the forces of science Press to examine the power of creation and the creatures that lie beneath the skin. She peers into our blood and bones and teases out the beasts that bury themselves inside our minds. With precision, K. I. Press conjures fantastic images and constructs an elegant poetic machine for her readers.

Award-winning photographer Mike Grandmaison has photographed some of the most beautiful places in Canada. In his newest pictorial, Mike Grandmaison's Ontario, Mike turns his lens to the landscape he grew up in. Born in Sudbury, Ontario, Mike Grandmaison has travelled to every corner of this great territory and captured vistas that hardly seem possible, from the untamed wilderness of the Canadian Shield, to the rolling green of the Niagaras. With his eye for the extraordinary, Grandmaison will help readers discover Ontario's great outdoors.In th... + Read More

Eigenheim [Ei·gen·heim] noun.One's own home.What is home? Is it found, is it built, or does it simply exist wherever we invoke its name? These are the central concerns of Joanne Epp's debut collection of poems. In Eigenheim, Epp wrestles with notions of home and the inherent tension between the need to go and find it and the desire to "settle down." In the process, the world blossoms before her, offering glimpses of the transcendent.

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Series: Letters to BrianA Year of Living and RemembranceElectronic book text, EPUBMartha Brooks9780888015228$12.50BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Apr 15, 2015

In daily love letters written to her husband and soul companion, Brian, over the year following his death from brain cancer, critically acclaimed author, playwright, and jazz singer Martha Brooks leads us on a journey through grief that is both deeply personal and undeniably universal. By turns funny, shattering, and uplifting, Brooks wrestles with the crucial question of how to continue a lifelong romance once your lover is gone. The answer seems to come from Brian himself, leaving timely clues and orchestrating surprising synchronicities of h... + Read More

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Series: Letters to BrianA Year of Living and RemembrancePaperbackMartha Brooks9780888015211$21.00BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Apr 15, 2015

In daily love letters written to her husband and soul companion, Brian, over the year following his death from brain cancer, critically acclaimed author, playwright, and jazz singer Martha Brooks leads us on a journey through grief that is both deeply personal and undeniably universal.By turns funny, shattering, and uplifting, Brooks wrestles with the crucial question of how to continue a lifelong romance once your lover is gone. The answer seems to come from Brian himself, leaving timely clues and orchestrating surprising synchronicities of he... + Read More

This latest collection of poems, “The Significance of Moths,” is an examination of life in Canada within a Filipino context. The title corresponds to a Filipino superstition that moths embody the souls of those who have recently passed on: though the person has died, the spirit still lingers, like a memory to an experience long gone. Much of the poems have been created within this framework, and focus on how the acts of remembering, and uncovering truths, ultimately influence the present. Through short poems, this work tackles issues that range... + Read More

Against the backdrop of the changing seasons, Shirley Camia's The Significance of Moths is a graceful exploration of home and memory through the eyes of the migrant and the migrant child. As lives are displaced by new landscapes, where does home exist? In the land or in the mind? For new Canadians and their children there is no easy answer. In the journey to form identity, The Significance of Moths confronts the ghosts of "what was" with the here and now.

Beautiful and eternal. The cutthroat rises to the fly from the depths of the river for only an instant, teasing, tantalizing, as the long line reaches out. The game continuesÃ¢â'¬â?the hook is set, the quarry played and the players ready to assume their roles.\nTed DyckÃ¢â'¬â"¢s Cutthroats & Other Poems pulses with the energy, the anticipation, and the elation that every fisherman knows. Each line and verse binds life and death, man and nature together, reminding us of a terrible beauty that includes us.

We may be lost but we are never alone. That is the message to be found in Brenda Hasiuk’s new collection of short stories, Boy Lost in Wild. Adrift in unfamiliar surroundings, strangers to the strangers around them, the characters in each story feel lost even though they are inextricably tied to one another. A foreign student, mugged on the streets of Winnipeg, befriends his landlord. A young man bursting with rage shares a quiet moment with a sibling. The tears of a child who cannot find his way home are soothed by the voice of an elderly woma... + Read More

We may be lost but we are never alone. That is the message to be found in Brenda Hasiukâ€™s new collection of short stories, Boy Lost in Wild. Adrift in unfamiliar surroundings, strangers to the strangers around them, the characters in each story feel lost even though they are inextricably tied to one another. A foreign student, mugged on the streets of Winnipeg, befriends his landlord. A young man bursting with rage shares a quiet moment with a sibling. The tears of a child who cannot find his way home are soothed by the voice of an elderly wo... + Read More

Clever and persistent, Magpie Days, the debut poetry collection from Brenda Sciberras, picks through the baubles and trinkets of the everyday. And like the black and white plumage of the magpie, SciberrasÃ¢â'¬â"¢s poems balance the exquisite tension between joy and misery. Evoking life-defining events from the remembrance of a first bicycle to the loss of a close friend, these poems acknowledge pleasure and pain as necessary to life.

Wherever Randy Craig goes, trouble seems to follow. With the help of her friend Denise, Randy has landed a summer job with a high school theatre program linked to the FreeWill Shakespeare Festival. But when a local actor shows up dead and Denise is the prime suspect, Randy has to find to a way to solve the mystery while surrounded with suspects who have no trouble lying to her face.The Roar of the Crowd by Janice MacDonald is the sixth installment in the wildly popular Randy Craig mystery series set in Edmonton, Alberta.

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Series: There Can Never be EnoughNew and Selected Stories of David ArnasonPaperbackDavid Arnason9780888014504$21.00FICTION Jun 20, 2014

David Arnason is one of the most loved and prolific short story authors on the prairies. Over a lifetime of writing David Arnason has crafted some of the most memorable stories in the Canadian literary canon and now for the first time the very best of Arnason's stories have been compiled into a single volume, There Never Can be Enough: New and selected stories of David Arnason.

Wherever Randy Craig goes, trouble seems to follow. With the help of her friend Denise, Randy has landed a summer job running a high school theatre program linked to the Freewill Shakespeare Festival. But when a local actor shows up dead and Denise is the prime suspect, Randy has to find a way to solve the mystery while surrounded with suspects who have no trouble lying to her face. The Roar of the Crowd by Janice MacDonald is the sixth installment in the wildly popular Randy Craig mystery series set in Edmonton, Alberta.

It's a great day for Greece when Perseus defeats the dreaded kraken. But victory begins to lose its lustre when the remains of the beast swamp the shores and fishing nets of the Aegean. Now after weeks of kraken cakes, kraken kabobs, kraken fritters, and kraken stew, everybody is getting decidedly sick of kraken - none more so than Chef Pelops. In response to the "kraken crisis," the city of Athens announces the inaugural Bronze Chef competition. Normally, Pelops would jump at the chance to prove himself the best celebrity chef in Greece. The t... + Read More

It\'s a great day for Greece when Perseus defeats the dreaded kraken. But victory begins to lose its lustre when the remains of the beast swamp the shores and fishing nets of the Aegean. Now after weeks of kraken cakes, kraken kabobs, kraken fritters, and kraken stew, everybody is getting decidedly sick of kraken - none more so than Chef Pelops.\nIn response to the "kraken crisis," the city of Athens announces the inaugural Bronze Chef competition. Normally, Pelops would jump at the chance to prove himself the best celebrity chef in Greece. The... + Read More

Paardeberg, South Africa is far from the Canadian prairies. In 1899, best friends from the small town of Portage la Prairie, Will and Mason, sign up with the Winnipeg Rifles? ?A? Company to fight in the Second Boer War. Here they meet Robert, the silent anthropologist from Alberta with a mystery he isn?t revealing; Claire, an Australian nurse, chafing under her parents? glass ceiling, who captures Will?s heart at first sight; and Campbell Scott, a rebellious veteran with an African wife and a hot air balloon requisitioned by the army for spying... + Read More

After beating back the might of Surtur, Ted Callan is getting used to his immortal powers. The man who once would stop at nothing to rid himself of his tattoos and their power might even be said to be enjoying his new-found abilities.However, not everyone is happy the glory of Valhalla has risen from the ashes of RagnarÖk. With every crash of MjÖlnir, Thor, former god of thunder, rages in Niflheim, the land of the dead.Now that Ted?s woken the dead, there?s going to be hell to pay.

Stones . . . hewn by nature and the hand of man. They shelter us, record our grief, provide hope, joy and provide a window into the past. Dennis Cooley's latest collection of poetry brings his trademark playfulness and wit to the very foundations of the earth. He stretches his prairie eyes far across the ocean to the cathedrals and monuments of Europe and connects our curling rinks and skipping stones to places rich in history.

Through the mind's eye Lydia Kwa charts the path of the stranger in a new land, the immigrant seeking escape, and transformation from the suffering of the past. Sinuous is a journey toward self-realization and acknowledgest that through the fiery trials of life it is possible to find renewed strength and purpose for the future.

Life is full of those moments, good and bad, that define you, make you whole, and provide direction to your journey. Richard Scarsbrooks brilliant debut collection of poetry, Outtakes, uncovers the moments that we keep hidden deep inside us, that steer us through the currents and eddies of the everyday.

Things are not well with the Wittenbergs. Alice has given birth to her second child with a genetic disorder. Millicent has withdrawn into a depression. Joseph must choose between being principal of George Sutton Collegiate and the new English teacher who's caught his eye. And Mia finds herself at the mercy of an unsympathetic teacher while her attractive athletic neighbour ignores her. Only the oldest Wittenberg, the matriarch who holds the key to the family's Mennonite past, can lead her family along the banks of the Dnieper and toward a bette... + Read More

Welcome to Blind Crescent, where everyone is watching, but nobody sees a thing. In this fictitious slice of suburban life, Michelle Berry peels back the pretentions of manicured lawns and the rictus smiles of “friendly” neighbours. With a deft hand, she paints a picture of suburbia so absurdly real that every suburbanite reader can’t help but feel strangely at home.

Michelle Berry has one of the most darkly playful and unique voices in Canadian literature and her second collection of short stories, Margaret Lives in the Basement is no exception. At its heart are characters full of longing, trapped by circumstance and unable to reach out or connect with one another. Whether it’s Margaret in the basement and her neighbours above, or two couples working out their family melodramas over dinner, there is always the presence of others but rarely a connection between them. By twists and turns Berry subverts what ... + Read More

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Series: What We All WantPaperbackMichelle Berry9780888014337$19.00FICTION Jul 29, 2013

Michelle Berry’s brilliant first novel, What We All Want, is as touching as it is mirthful. Siblings Hilary, Thomas and Billy have been thrown together after a long estrangement to plan their mother’s funeral. For Thomas and Billy, the prospect of being back in their childhood home is far from ideal. Even more unsettling is their sister, who has developed a few disturbing attachments to dolls, preserves, and pebbles underfoot. For Hilary, the sight of her brothers is a sign of hope and a new life. As they argue over the funeral arrangements, Hi... + Read More

Welcome to Blind Crescent, where everyone is watching, but nobody sees a thing. In this fictitious slice of suburban life, Michelle Berry peels back the pretensions of manicured lawns and the rictus smiles of "friendly" neighbours. With a deft hand, she paints a picture of suburbia so absurdly real that every suburbanite reader can't help but feel strangely at home.

With echoes of Sunset Boulevard, Michelle Berry’s Blur brings the warped world of Hollywood stardom into lurid focus. Tabloid reporter Bruce Dermott has been waiting seven long years for his moment in the sun when he strikes pay dirt in Emma Fine. Emma, a former Hollywood starlet, has been out of the spotlight for years after her lover was found dead in her swimming pool. As Bruce digs deeper he discovers lives twisted and misshapen by jealousy, obsession, and narcissism, lives we crave to hear about today more than ever.

Michelle Berry has one of the most darkly playful and unique voices in Canadian literature and her second collection of short stories, Margaret Lives in the Basement, is no exception. At its heart are characters full of longing, trapped by circumstance and unable to reach out or connect with one another. Whether it's Margaret in the basement and her neighbours above, or two couples working out their family melodramas over dinner, there is always the presence of others but rarely a connection between them. By twists and turns, Berry subverts wha... + Read More

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Series: What We All WantElectronic book text, EPUBMichelle Berry9780888014344$12.99FICTION Jul 15, 2013

Michelle Berry?s brilliant first novel is as touching as it is mirthful. Siblings Hilary, Thomas, and Billy have been thrown together after a long estrangement to plan their mother?s funeral. For Thomas and Billy, the prospect of being back in their childhood home is far from ideal. Even more unsettling is their sister, who has developed a few disturbing attachments to dolls, preserves, and pebbles underfoot. For Hilary, the sight of her brothers is a sign of hope and a new life. As they argue over the funeral arrangements, Hilary, Billy, and T... + Read More

With echoes of Sunset Boulevard, Michelle Berry?s Blur brings the warped world of Hollywood stardom into lurid focus. Tabloid reporter Bruce Dermott has been waiting seven long years for his moment in the sun when he strikes paydirt in Emma Fine. Emma, a former Hollywood starlet has been out of the spotlight for years after her lover was found dead in her swimming pool. As Bruce digs deeper he discovers lives twisted and misshapen by jealousy, obsession, and narcissism, lives we crave to hear about today more than ever.

Manitoba Butterflies is one of the most unique and accessible field guides to feature Manitoba's winged ambassador, the butterfly. Novices and experts alike will be engrossed with over 600 full colour photos featuring full colour life-size specimens as well as images of the entire butterfly lifecycle from egg to mature butterfly of over 100 butterfly species found in Manitoba. The combination of scientific fact and anecdotal information make for a thoroughly engaging way to learn about butterflies.

For anyone other than Randy Craig, a contract to do archival research and web development for Alberta's famed Rutherford House should have been a quiet gig. But when she discovers an unsolved mystery linked to Rutherford House in the Alberta Archives and the bodies begin to pile up, Randy can't help but wonder if her modern-day troubles are linked to the intrigues of the past.

Heather York is trying to find balance in her life. Sure, her son Jeff is every parent?s dream, but Winn, headstrong and independent, makes being a single mom a real struggle. When a guilty conscience calls Heather to the side of her dying uncle, wheels are set in motion that will change her life forever. The Only Man in the World is an understated story of what it means to be a woman and how to live a life of integrity and grace amid the changing fortunes of love.